Chapter 64: Long Time No See

Kong Zhendong was not difficult to find.
In fact, Chen Mingjiang made contact with Kong Zhendong in less than an hour.
The call was initiated by Kong Zhendong.
"Hello, Team Leader Kong!" Chen Mingjiang greeted him with polite formality.
Kong Zhendong responded with equal courtesy: "Hello, is this Mr. Chen Mingjiang? I heard you were looking for me urgently?"
Chen Mingjiang uttered a low acknowledgement and cut straight to the point: "I'm looking to find out about someone from you."
"Who?"
"Yu Guang!" Chen Mingjiang replied, "He said you know everything about him!"
With that, the other end of the line fell silent.
The silence stretched on for a long time—so long that Chen Mingjiang almost thought something had gone wrong with the call—before Kong Zhendong's voice finally came through again: "So, what is it you want to know about him?" His tone was devoid of any emotion, as if the prolonged silence just now had merely been Chen Mingjiang's illusion.
Originally, Chen Mingjiang had intended to ask where Yu Guang had gone after leaving Moon Lake, what he had done, and why he had eventually ended up in Nanrai. But after experiencing Kong Zhendong's silence, he changed his mind.
He said, "I just want to know, is a person like Yu Guang trustworthy?"
"Trustworthy!" Kong Zhendong gave the answer almost without hesitation.
Hearing this, Chen Mingjiang let out a light chuckle and said, "In that case, I can rest easy!" Then he added, "Thank you, Team Leader Kong. I have nothing else to ask, so I won't disturb you any further. You can..."
Before he could finish, Kong Zhendong interrupted him: "Mr. Chen, please hold on a moment."
"Alright!" Chen Mingjiang agreed, waiting quietly for what would come next.
A moment later, he heard Kong Zhendong ask, "Would it be convenient for you to give me Yu Guang's contact number?"
Hearing this, Chen Mingjiang hesitated.
However, his hesitation lasted only a second or two before he agreed: "Sure, I'll read it to you, take it down."
"Alright."
……
……
At this moment, Zhong Yuan had already returned to Wangwei Town.
Instead of going back to the hotel, he parked his car by the river on the outskirts of the town. He jumped up onto the hood, half-reclined against the windshield, and looked up at the twinkling stars in the sky, his thoughts somewhat chaotic.
In truth, over the past two years—especially in the last six months or so—he had rarely thought about those past events.
Yet when the name Kong Zhendong had slipped from his lips earlier, those long-buried memories suddenly surged up from the depths of his heart.
Looking back now, the suppression and pain of the past no longer truly existed, leaving behind only complexity.
Only when he thought of those small yellow flowers at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains would a faint, dense ache stir in his chest—not sharp, but lingering and enduring.
Often, he even felt that he was unworthy of her.
She lived with forbearance and resilience. She was not like a lotus blooming out of the mud; she was more like the lotus root beneath it. Deeply mired in that swamp, she never gave up on herself, still striving with all her might to grow, and always maintaining the original purity of her heart.
He missed her somewhat.
The sudden vibration in his pocket interrupted his longing.
Zhong Yuan took out his phone, looked at the caller ID on the screen, and froze slightly.
It was a call from domestic.
At this hour, there was only one person who could call this phone from back home.
Although the moment he gave Kong Zhendong's name to Chen Mingjiang, he had anticipated this moment, he hadn't expected it to arrive so soon!
Zhong Yuan took a slight, deep breath, calmed the turbulent thoughts in his heart, and answered the phone.
"Team Leader Kong, trust you have been well since we last met!" Zhong Yuan said with a light chuckle.
On the other end of the line, after a long silence, a soft laugh suddenly broke out, followed by Kong Zhendong's slightly hoarse voice: "I'm getting by. And you?"
They conversed with polite pleasantries like old friends who hadn't been in touch for a long time.
They spoke of their current situations while mutually avoiding those past events that should never be mentioned.
After a good while, Kong Zhendong suddenly said, "Chen Mingjiang is alright, he can be trusted. If you run into difficulties, you can ask him for help."
The peace they had feigned was torn to shreds in that single instant. Zhong Yuan fell silent for a moment, let out a silent, self-deprecating chuckle, and then said, "Alright." Having given his reply, he no longer had the inclination to play along with Kong Zhendong's script of a joyous reunion between old friends. After exchanging a couple of perfunctory words, he ended the call.
Putting away his phone, he lit a cigarette.
Given Kong Zhendong's personality, this call was definitely not just because he had suddenly received word of him and wanted to reminisce.
Besides, there was nothing left between them to reminisce about.
If forced to say there was anything, it could only be that tangled web of grievances and entanglements.
Therefore, Kong Zhendong's call must have had a specific purpose.
What could it possibly be?
Surely it couldn't be just to tell him that Chen Mingjiang was trustworthy!
Zhong Yuan frowned slightly.
It seemed that in Kong Zhendong's eyes, he might once again have some exploitable value!
Meanwhile, Kong Zhendong, standing in the restroom of the Pinghai Expressway service area, also lit a cigarette.
A middle-aged man nearby was checking his call history on his mobile phone while holding a hundred-yuan bill in his other hand.
Kong Zhendong handed over another cigarette and asked, "Brother, where are you from?"
The middle-aged man accepted the cigarette, put away his phone, and smiled, "From the North."
"Sightseeing around here then?" Kong Zhendong followed up naturally.
The middle-aged man shook his head: "Sightseeing? What sightseeing, I drive a semi-truck, just came to deliver cargo."
"That's hard work!"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man eagerly opened up.
A few minutes later, Kong Zhendong walked into the parking lot, shaking the water off his hands. The parking lot at night was not very crowded, mostly filled with large trucks.
Kong Zhendong walked up to a black commercial van and pulled open the door.
Inside, the driver was resting with his eyes closed.
Hearing the movement, he turned his head and, seeing that it was him, asked, "Team Leader Kong, Captain Qu from the Pinghai Public Security Bureau just called to ask where we are. He's waiting at the expressway exit."
Kong Zhendong frowned upon hearing this, then checked the time and asked, "How did you answer?"
"I said we'd be a while longer, and told him to go back and rest first without waiting for us!" the driver replied.
Kong Zhendong nodded at this and said, "Have Xiaodong drive later, and go straight to Meng City."
The driver was stunned for a moment: "Go straight to Meng City? Then what about Pinghai? The orders from above were for us to arrive in Pinghai first..."
"Why don't you call superiors right now and report this to see if they agree or not?" Kong Zhendong looked up at him coldly, cutting him off before he could finish.
The driver's expression stiffened, and then he lowered his gaze: "Team Leader Kong, that's not what I meant!"
"I don't care what you meant. But since you came out with me, you follow my orders in everything. If you don't like it, get out and go back, and we'll swap you for someone who knows how to obey. Or, you can report to the superiors and have them send someone who can take your orders!" Kong Zhendong delivered these words mercilessly. The driver's face alternated between green and white, flushed with humiliation!
Fortunately, at that moment, the other three members of the group returned.
One of them was holding two roasted sausages. As soon as he stepped inside, without noticing the tense atmosphere between the two men in the car, he handed out the sausages, one to each.
Kong Zhendong took his first.
The driver cast a furtive glance at Kong Zhendong before taking his as well.
"Xiaodong, switch with Qu Chao. You'll drive, we're heading straight to Meng City," Kong Zhendong said as he took a bite of the sausage.
Xiaodong, the one who handed out the sausages, and the other two men were momentarily stunned upon hearing this. But it was just a momentary pause, and not a single one of them raised any objection.
Qu Chao quickly moved to the back, sitting all by himself in the very rearmost row of the van, his eyes filled with suppressed resentment in the dim light.
"Brother Dong, should we book the accommodation in Meng City?" The person in the front passenger seat asked as he took out his phone once the vehicle started moving.
Kong Zhendong thought for a moment and said, "Book it. Just book it for two days first."
"Got it!" The young man in the passenger seat replied in a brisk tone, and immediately began searching for a hotel on an app on his phone!